Statistics Canada survey highlights immigration and religion shift

Immigrants listen to the judge speak during a Canadian citizenship ceremony at the Daniels Spectrum in Toronto on Tuesday, October 16, 2012.

Photograph by: (Matthew Sherwood for National Post)
, Postmedia News

OTTAWA — Canada is steadily becoming a nation awash with immigrants whose own cultural traits — from religion to language — are being felt on streets in cities both big and small.

The change to the national fabric was confirmed in data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada based on a National Household Survey it conducted in 2011.

Among the G8 countries, Canada had the highest proportion of foreign-born population (20.6 per cent), followed by Germany (13 per cent) and the United States (12.9 per cent).

In total, 1.2 million immigrants came to Canada between 2006 and 2011.

Most are settling in the nation’s big cities — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver — but other cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina and Ottawa are also seeing their cultural milieu changed by a rising tide of immigration.

During the recent five-year period, the largest share of immigrants to Canada (56.9 per cent) came from Asia and the Middle East — compared to how just 8.5 per cent of immigrants to Canada before 1970 came from that region.

All the while, Canada is experiencing mixed changes on religion. Nearly one-quarter of Canadians (23.9 per cent) had no religious affiliation last year, up from 15 per cent a decade earlier.

That’s not to say that religion is dead in Canada. About 22.1 million Canadians (67.3 per cent of the population) are Christians. Roman Catholics are the largest of that group, with 12.7 million Canadians (38.7 per cent) saying they are Catholics.

However, because of immigration patterns, other religions are slowly taking root. Last year, 2.4 million Canadians (7.2 per cent) were either Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist — up from 4.9 per cent a decade earlier.

The signs are everywhere: More mosques are being built in neighbourhoods filled with immigrants from Asia.

The colour of our skin is no longer so white, as more visible minorities occupy a place in our society — 19.1 per cent, compared to 16.2 per cent in 2006.

And as our First Nations people continue to struggle for more prosperity, the data reveal a large proportion of Canada’s aboriginals are young people (28 per cent are under the age of 15) — and that many of them are losing their native language and living in lone-parent families or foster care.

The voluntary survey of more than three million people replaces the mandatory long-form census. It has drawn controversy because some say the voluntary nature of the survey leaves gaps in the data from groups that tend not to respond to voluntary surveys, including aboriginals, new immigrants and low-income families. Experts believe the data should provide a fairly accurate broad scale picture of Canada, but that the smaller the group surveyed, the less reliable the information.

Doug Norris, a former senior census official at Statistics Canada who is now chief demographer at Environics Analytics, said in an interview Canada is on track to become a more ethnically diverse country.

He said the shift could impact culture and consumer spending patterns — as children from immigrant families embrace sports such as soccer instead of Canada’s beloved hockey, and as grocery stores restock their shelves with new foods sought by immigrants.

It could even raise key questions about societal tolerance for religious faiths at a time of global tension.

“It’s the age-old question that people raise about living together,” said Norris.

“You see some people come together and embrace diversity — particularly young people, as opposed to an older generation who didn’t grow up seeing these cultures. It’s still foreign to them.

“So we are going to change. People have different reactions to the change. Some adapt better than others.”

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